Description

To provide a flexible English language curriculum, suitable for adult LBOE (Language Background Other Than English) learners who prefer a less formal approach to learning and assessment.

The accredited courses currently in use, despite their many strengths, make considerable demands on those learners with interrupted schooling, literacy needs or those suffering from refugee or other trauma. The aim of the CELL is to recognise students' achievements at the early stages of their English language learning, providing gently graded levels to encourage them to remain in the field of further education. The CELL is therefore suitable for learners and classes of varied educational backgrounds, skills and experiences. The flexibility necessary for such variety is achieved by providing modules within five literacy skill areas, in three or more contextual domains.

The curriculum takes a broader view of literacy and language by including electronic and diagrammatic texts and numeracy skills within its framework. Including these broader elements recognises the 'new literacies' required in the negotiation of these texts, as well as their importance in the everyday world. The curriculum encourages a critical approach in all areas including orally, literacy and numeracy.

The CELL curriculum aims to build on adult learners' skills in a range of literacies, but makes no assumptions about the learners' previous educational experiences. The course assumes some facility with Roman script, though this need may not be a prerequisite. The CELL provides a series of gently graded levels with certificated outcomes, in recognition of the discipline and conceptual challenges involved in early language learning.

It is hoped that the achievability of the modules and the flexibility of the certificates will encourage learners to remain in English language classes and/or in the field of adult education.